The US Bureau of Land Management released an environmental assessment for Noble Energy Inc.’s proposed Huntington Valley natural gas project 7 miles from Jiggs, Nev., an unincorporated community 30 miles south of Elko. Comments will be accepted on it through June 4, BLM said.

The Houston independent plans to drill as many as 20 wells over 2 years on a mixture of public and private land, BLM’s Elko District Office said on May 22. Drilling pads and roads would be constructed, and existing roads would be maintained or constructed to accommodate rig and support vehicle traffic, it said. Hydraulic fracturing may be used, it added.

The project’s 15 leases encompass 63,495 acres, the notice said. There would be 425.8 acres of total anticipated surface disturbance, including 287.8 acres of public land (0.45% of the total project area) and 138 acres of private surface with federal mineral rights (0.21% of the total area).

While Noble Energy has identified 39 possible well pad locations on its Huntington Valley holdings, only 20 wells actually would be drilled, limiting actual disturbance of both public and private surface to 311.8 acres (0.49% of the total project area), BLM’s notice said.